How could an old Cork song - The Bells of Shandon - make a difference when doing business with Japan? Picture this scene. St Patrick's Day in Tokyo. A Corkman, who is a linguist and a ballad player, is asked to sing.
His knowledge of the Japanese language is not perfect but he has taken the trouble to learn the words of an ancient ballad celebrating a Japanese folk hero.
To a hushed and astonished audience, he plays his guitar and delivers the song. The occasion is social, but being Japan, it has a business flavour too.
A woman approaches and explains that she learned the ballad at her mother's feet - one of her all-time favourite songs. And then a request. She had served in her country's diplomatic service in Europe, including Ireland, and had visited Cork. It was there she heard, and came to love, the Shandon song. Could he sing that too? No problem. Martin Murray, the singer, won everyone's attention with his rendition. You might say that the power of song opened doors.
Mr Murray now operates the Excel International Language Institute in Cork. His main language is French. Over a decade ago, Mr Robin Gill, the managing director of Mitsui in Cork, asked him to teach English to an incoming executive from Japan. He agreed, but felt that before meeting the executive, he should learn something of Japanese culture and history.
On a scale of one-to-10 he puts his appreciation of these subjects at seven to eight while, modestly, he says his skill in a very difficult language is no more than four. "To learn this complicated language would take a lifetime, but I can get by and I understand it very well," he says.
Once he delved into the Japanese culture and language, Mr Murray was hooked. There followed many visits and firm friendships: "When you make a friend in Japan, that is a friend for life."
In 1994, he organised a Japanese cultural festival in Cork, and the following year, started the southern region of the Ireland/Japan Association, a bilateral business association with a cultural wing. His office computers can be switched to Japanese at the push of a button and he now advises up to 20 firms in Cork on how best to enter and deal with the Japanese market.
Through his contacts in Japan, he can provide a networking service for business people and help them to make vital initial contacts. Firms like Alps Electronics; EMC Ireland; consultants Ernst and Young; the Fujisawa Pharmaceutical company in Kerry; and the Blue Haven Hotel in Kinsale, take up his services.
But what about the downturn in the Japanese economy? Mr Murray says the Western press has failed to appreciate that a medium-sized company in Japan would be regarded as a major one in Ireland. Up to now, these companies believed the home market was stable and supportive. But Japan's recent economic jolt has given pause for thought.
No longer inward-looking, they know that overseas development has got to be their way to salvation and growth.
The situation is not gloomy, he says. Instead, there is a huge potential for growth and he expects to be part of it. Recently, he was appointed the first "partner in Ireland" of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Co-operation.
The Japanese ambassador to Ireland, Mr Takanora Kazuhara, a regular visitor to Cork, is an enthusiastic supporter of Mr Murray's work and allocates a sizeable subvention each year from the embassy enabling Cork to host business and cultural events involving both nations.
Just back from a four-month stint in Japan, Martin Murray and his 10-strong staff at the language institute, including a Japanese director - Ms Minako Takada - have no doubt that the ties between the two nations will only become stronger and both sides will benefit.